BREAKING NEWS

BREAKING NEWS

Placid board plans week of events

LAKE PLACID – The upcoming Empire State Winter Games and the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron were hot topics of discussion at the village board meeting Monday.

The board approved a firework display again this year for the Empire State Winter Games, which will be set off from atop the Olympic Center. The fireworks are expected to last for about 12 minutes. The event will start Thursday and run until Sunday. It’s the fourth year the village has taken a leading role, budgeting $5,000 a year for the event. The state had given up running the games after more than 25 years, but local towns, vollages and tourism groups kept them going on their own.

“We expect to have one of the biggest enrollments in the games we’ve ever seen.” Mayor Craig Randall said. “It’s continued to grow, and those of us who have been in those meetings are encouraged by how smooth it’s going.”

Randall added it is an interesting time for Lake Placid with so many events overlapping within the same week.

The lighting of the 1980 Olympic Flame Cauldron was another event the board brought up.

Randall said he looked forward to seeing people involved in the 1980 Winter Olympics carrying the torch this week, as well as Lake Placid being in the media spotlight.

“It would be a nice tradition if we could light it every four years,” he added.

The event starts at 5 p.m. at the North Elba Show Grounds, and the cauldron will be lit at 6 p.m.

A sewer study of Main Street was set aside for a later meeting after board members expressed doubts about the scope and costs of the project to be studied. A grant application was put together back in August to request $30,000 to begin planning to replace sewer lines on Main Street.

“Let’s get the project defined with the costs,” Randall said. “There are several pieces to this project. It may not happen for several years,”

The board approved a yearly agreement with the state for a lump sum for snow and ice removal village workers performed on state roads that run through Lake Placid. The total payment to the village will be $44,821.

The board renewed its agreement with Lake Placid Beautification Inc., giving it $27,000 for flower arrangements and decorations placed around the village year round. Randall noted that the group also raises money through private businesses in the community as well as the town of North Elba.

In other business, a vacancy opened up on the zoning board. There are some people who indicated an interest in the position, Randall said. The village will appoint a volunteer to fill the position.